


Clear Blue Skies

by Red Charade (traciller)



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Rick's POV, Shane Walsh Lives, Shane is not a morning person, Shmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-15
Updated: 2017-08-15
Packaged: 2018-12-15 17:01:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11810322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/traciller/pseuds/Red%20Charade
Summary: Rick is the first to wake up with the dawn and he takes a few moments to himself before the others begin to wake up to think about the way things are.





	Clear Blue Skies

Rick is the first one awake, which isn’t so strange really these days. Especially since Shane’s always been a heavy sleeper and as long as he’s around other people that still kind of maintains to this day, even after the world’s ended.

But, Rick likes moments like this. When he’s the first one awake and he looks to see the sky pinking up with the dawn through the trees. It’s autumn and the nights are just starting to turn cool and to stay that way even after sunup in the mornings for a little while. 

They’ll have to find better, warmer shelter, preferably a place they can defend better. Sooner rather than later, because Rick wants it done before the first snows start. He’s heard about these Northern winters and he’s not gonna have his family freeze or starve to death just because they weren’t prepared in time.

Thinking of that, the things that could go wrong in this world so easily, he tightens his arm around Shane’s waist just a little, pulling his partner a little closer to him. He wasn’t sure what to really call each other, did labels matter in a world like this? It wasn’t like their relationship was new at this point, but it felt like the labels still did matter. Were they boyfriends? Husbands? Rick still had his wedding ring from when he’d been married to Lori, but it felt wrong to wear that as a symbol of his love for Shane. Unless it’s a family heirloom passed down from grandparents you don’t remember too well or at all, you usually don’t give someone a ring that was bought with someone else’s smile in mind. Not to mention Shane didn’t even have a ring at all. And even if they did have appropriate rings, did it matter if they didn’t have an appropriate ceremony?

Boyfriends, then. Probably. Because it still felt like those things mattered. But, it still felt like that word wasn’t strong enough. And partners…it was versatile enough to work, too, but it felt too businesslike to him. He and Shane had called each other partners when they worked together before the world ended. It still felt too much like that when they used it, but so far that’s the word they’d used. It wasn’t always safe to tell people you were two people of the same gender in a romantic and sexual relationship with one another. Partners could mean a lot of things. But, he wasn’t confused about what to say when they didn’t have a good read on who was listening. He wanted to know what to call each other for themselves.

He smiled when Shane snuffled a little and turned in his arms so that he was facing Rick and pressed up a little closer, seeking more warmth and pressing his face against Rick’s collar bone. Rick slid a hand up to slowly, gently, almost absently card his fingertips through Shane’s thick, curly hair. It had grown back just as thick and luxurious as he remembered from before he shaved it at the Greene farm. It was after the world ended, but still felt like part of the Time Before. Like a lifetime ago. Maybe two lifetimes.

But, Shane really was so cute when he would snuggle up to Rick like this. And it was nice when he was awake early enough to watch him do it. He was pretty sure the smile he was wearing was far too big and goofy for so early in the morning.

Pink was bleeding into orange and soon after that, too soon, would be blue. He knew it would, it was that kind of morning. He could tell already without having to see the sun. Good. A nice, clear day. Maybe a few wispy clouds that looked like they were made of cotton. They wouldn’t get too many more days like that once the season turned to winter. It was strange, how everything changed so drastically after the world ended, but there were still some things that stayed exactly the same like the sky. The hellhole that was the state of the world couldn’t destroy the beauty of sunrises, sunsets, of a clear blue sky as far as the eye could see. Of dense, green forests.

The sight of the man you love cuddled up close to you in the light of dawn, face peaceful and soft as you shared your warmth with him, both held in each other’s arms as people have done for centuries.

He pressed a soft kiss to Shane’s forehead, and smiled when he heard Judith cooing from nearby. She could be a bit of an early riser, like her mother. Her soft sounds would wake Carl soon, who had her in his arms to protect her in sleep.

Looking out the window one more time as he lay on the barn floor with Shane, before he turned his mind toward more concrete ideas on what had to be done today, he let himself chance a plan for the future. If they ever came upon another compound or safe zone or…anything, like the ones they occasionally found intact and running well on their travels, if they had someone there to speak the words and maybe some rings available, he’d ask Shane to marry him. It didn’t matter whether it would’ve been legal in the Time Before. This isn’t then, this is the Time After and there are no laws to say two grown-up people who love each other can’t get married just because they’re both the same gender.

And if there are in this hypothetical compound, then if Shane will have him as a husband he’ll figure out a way to persuade them to make an exception for them. Surely they’d have something to bargain or trade with, everybody out there these days was looking for angles and if they wanted Rick and Shane’s group then there must be something to trade with and he’d figure it out and he’d make it a condition that they’d only stay if he and Shane could get married.

They’d figure it out. But for now, he could hear Carl waking up and Judith beginning to get a little fussy. She probably needed breakfast and a change. After that, it’d be time for the rest of them to have breakfast, try to get Shane up, divvy up the workload and get started on the things they had to do today. This barn was flimsy and rickety as hell, and he’d ideally like to find something else for winter, something that he wouldn’t have to worry would fall over at too much of a gusty wind or collapse under the weight of a few snowflakes, but if not then they needed to get to work reinforcing it as much as possible so it could withstand the winter, put up a proper parameter to keep it safe from walkers, try to figure out how to make it warmer inside.

He didn’t like it, he wasn’t fond of the location and ten thousand other potential hazards, but sometimes needs must. They’d figure it out. And in the meantime, marrying Shane was a nice daydream.

“Come on, honey…I gotta help Carl with Judith,” Rick murmured to the sleeping man beside him and chuckled when he got a huff in response. Shane’s eyes opened, just barely, glassy and unfocused. His man was so adorable in the morning.

“Morning, baby. Gonna be time for breakfast soon.” Rick whispered, placing a soft kiss on Shane’s lips when the man turned to look up at him a little more and give a gruff little grunt in response. The kiss got more of a response out of him, though, and Rick let himself be pulled down for another, deeper kiss before he finally pulled back and began to extricate himself.

“It’s way too early,” Shane said, voice still rough with sleep, and still having a little trouble keeping his eyes open for too long but he sat up in time for Carl to hand Judith over to him and having their baby daughter to focus on certainly helped wake him up more.

“It’s dawn,” Rick answered with a fond smile as he got a cloth diaper and some things ready to get Judith changed while Carl got her breakfast ready for her.

“M’startin to worry about you, Rick. You say shit like that like it actually makes sense to wake up at the asscrack of dawn,” Shane said, although he wasn’t as grouchy as he was trying to pretend given the way he was immediately nuzzling into Judith’s hair and giving her a kiss on the forehead, then a kiss on her little hands when she giggled and reached up to push at his mouth.

“Watch your language, Grumpy,” Rick teased and grinned a little wider as he came over to sit back down on the floor with the things he’d brought over for changing Judith’s diaper only to have Shane scoff at his admonishment as he handed their baby girl over.

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally meant to be much shorter and have no dialogue in it, but it just kind of got away from me! I hope it didn't feel too rambling.


End file.
